Could this be headed to Hyundai's rumored supercar? It certainly has performance benefits…
Hyundai has filed a patent for deployable side skirts, taking an idea Honda came up with last year to the next level. CarBuzz discovered the patent filed with the German Patent and Trade Mark Office.
Instead of just using side skirts to improve the aerodynamic flow, Hyundai looked at the car's aerodynamic properties as a whole. Any vehicle utilizing this installation will also have an active air damper at the front, which can be opened and closed as necessary. It will also have a spoiler at the rear. Both these features will politely push the car downward, thanks to an area of low pressure being formed beneath the chassis.
With the side skirts deployed, the air is forced to flow underneath the vehicle and out the rear instead of scattering in multiple directions, maintaining that low-pressure zone and its effects of increased grip.
Hyundai proposes a simple rotating device mated to an actuator to adjust how far the skirts come down. Using a basic circular motion and a skirt consisting of two panels, Hyundai can create three states of operation, including stowed, half-deployed, or fully deployed.
As you can imagine, having side skirts less than an inch off the ground is risky. They'd be destroyed by the first random rock, speed bump, pothole, et cetera. With the side skirts stowed, a car like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 can safely navigate the streets without hassle. Even half-deployed, these side skirts would miss most objects. The skirts will likely only be fully deployed on the highway or on a track, where there's less chance of hitting a low-lying foreign object.
Even so, Hyundai states that the second panel (the one closest to the ground) should be made from a soft, elastic material. By using such a material, the second panel can bend as necessary to achieve the various states, and it's not such a biggie if you hit something and tear it off.
Naturally, technology can also be used to prevent these skid skirts from spectacularly detaching themselves. Modern cars are equipped with cameras and sensors, which can detect an object on the road and order the actuator to pull the skirts up within the blink of an eye. At any given moment, the car also receives information from the brake pedal, steering, GPS, and speed sensors. All of this can be used to prevent the skirts from shearing off.
The benefits of these side skirts will be well-known to old-school F1 fans. The Lotus F1 team discovered “ground effect” by accident but soon realized that forcing air underneath the car makes the air flow faster, thanks to the aforementioned low-pressure zone. Basically, it sucks the car to the ground, something that seems ideal for a supercar…
Hyundai has confirmed that it is still interested in introducing a supercar at some point, but Hyundai does not half-do anything anymore. It will only introduce such a proposition for the first time if it is convinced that the end product can truly compete with its contemporaries. Advanced aero seems like a great first step to creating that wow factor, while other ideas like retractable digital rearview mirrors could add to it.
Hyundai admits that it can improve driving performance but also points out that it reduces the air resistance on the rear tires. Couple this feature with low-resistance tires and wheels designed to cut through the air like a hot knife through butter, and you have an exceptionally aerodynamically efficient ride.
Essentially, this idea could have benefits for hypermiling EVs and hyper-performing sports cars alike. When it will become production-viable is anyone's guess, but Hyundai seems determined to take a place at the top of the tech hierarchy.
Keyword: Hyundai Working On Ground-Effect Aerodynamics For New Cars